A lot of scouting activity this week. First of all, Nick is now a Bear Scout. He got the promotion at the
camp out that we went to this weekend. Second, Nick earned his God and Me medal. We should be seeing this in about a month.
But back to the
camp out. It was a very interesting time, some good, others not so much. First of all we hadn't had a den meeting in the last few weeks so details were a bit scarce. And these were important details, things like: food; time; plans; etc. So Nick and I went to the John Zinc ranch at 10 am on Saturday. That was the original time we were given 3 weeks ago and with no other time, that's when we got there. Of course, no one else was there from his troop. We were told at the registration booth that his pack was expected around noon. We were also told that the camp had moved us to a different site. So the time and place were wrong.
To kill the time, and since Nick did not have a sweatshirt like I told him to bring, we headed into town and stopped at a
Wal-Mart for provisions and a heavy shirt. When we returned at 1pm there was some activity at the site. The Boy Scout Troop representatives were there. But no Cub Scouts. But at least we could get the tents up and
that's what we did. But Nick was bored out of his mind. Once we were settled, we played some war but that only killed 10 minutes. Nick took a short hike with the Boy Scouts but he didn't seem to have much fun. The
camp out was turning into a disaster.
But thankfully, Taylor and his dad showed up. Taylor is one of Nick's best friends. He's in his class and den. For the rest of the day wherever Nick was Taylor was. And whatever Taylor was doing Nick was doing. They ran around and chased each other, told each other jokes, shot each other with
marshmallow guns, and just had a ball.
Around 4, the
Webelos showed up and the boys just started going wild. This was what I was expecting. The boys had a great time. We cooked hot dogs and
marshmallows over the fire. Hiked to a fort and had a grand time. As night fell we watched the space station fly over and had the ceremony making the boys the next level up.
The tents, however, provided no cover from the wind and the temp dropped into the mid 30s. Damn it was cold waking up this morning. But Nick seemed to sleep OK. We left at 7:30 and made it home in time to get to church.
One side note. When I started packing I pulled out my old camping backpack with the frame. It's been a while since I used this. And while I was packing it, I felt something in the pocket flap. It was a note from Dr. Andrews staying that I shouldn't swim the first week at
Camp Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan in 1985. It also had six merit badges:
Pulp and Paper;
Mammal Study;
Camping;
Farm Mechanics;
Canoeing and of course
Swimming.
